The Formative Power of Gratitude

On Thanksgiving each year, many of us practice giving gratitude. Is this just a nice family tradition, or is there a truly formative power of gratitude? Let’s start with words of wisdom from wise people. Eckhart Tolle once said (paraphrased), “If you practice gratitude, life will give you more things to be grateful for.” In the East they say, “As you think, so do you become.” In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, verse 70, Jesus says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

From these wise sayings, I can only surmise that our minds are creative in nature. Tantric yogis see the mind as a restless being, not unlike a monkey, that is always creating. Thought is creative, whether we know it or not. We are always moving towards something. We cannot help it, that is being human. It is all a matter of towards what we are moving. Tantric practice therefore uses skillful means to keep the mind fixed on the divine and high that we may aspire towards it. These are some helpful methods.

The Science of Gratitude

Yet, it is not only what we are moving towards that matters but what is moving towards us. Most of us have heard of the Law of Attraction, but does it really work? My answer is, how can it NOT?

We only believe the Law of Attraction doesn’t work because we think our “self” is imprisoned in this little capsule we call our body. Yet, even this body doesn’t belong to us. Think about it. In yoga, this body is called the “food sheath.” It is literally composed of the food we have eaten that has been transformed into human substance. So, even our body is made up substance taken from the world around us. Considering how far the supply chain runs these days. That means my body, for example, comes from Ecuador, California, New York, Delaware, a Greek Island, some sheep somewhere, etc. That’s kind of a funny thought, isn’t it?

In other words, we belong to the world, and the world belongs to us. How, therefore, can the Law of Attraction NOT be active, every moment all the time if we and the world interpenetrate? Our separateness from the world is only a clever trick of sense experience which does have its sacred place in our evolution. However, our thoughts act like dandelion seeds in the world. Thoughts are things, and the power of gratitude works like a farmer sowing seeds of good things to come.

Gratitude as a Formative Practice

So, what? I come from a lineage of complainers. Maybe you do, too. Struggling with terrible health, I realized at one point in my life that maybe I was contributing to it through the climate of my inner world. That’s when I started a simple practice at the end of each day: find three (or more) things to give gratitude for from the day. Once I get going, I often start listing more, like 5, or 6, or 27. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it becomes a lot easier once you get going. Oh, and you do it religiously, every day, on the best and the worst days. That’s the only way it can work.

The power of gratitude has helped me buck generations of inherited negativity. Thus, I wanted to share this with you on the eve of American Thanksgiving. Why not begin a daily, religious practice of giving gratitude this Thanksgiving and see what happens? Perhaps you may find that the more gratitude you give the more life gives you things to be grateful for.